his castle. and that was the good news from the uk today. that is our broadcast for this monday evening as we start off a new week. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. it has been a remarkable day of news. there's some late breaking political news tonight out of washington that sounds like it is a surprise to the white house. we're going to be getting to that with some of the -- with one of the reporters who broke that story tonight. the big positive news for the white house today concerned its nominee for secretary of state, mike pompeo. there is big negative news out tonight about the presidential nominee to head up the veterans administration. that va nomination looks like it is on the rocks, and indefinitely delayed at this point. again, that news is just breaking as we're going to air. we're going to be getting into detail on that story with one of the reporters who broke that story coming up. of course, the news that

dominated today's headlines and everybody's focus all day today was out of toronto. terrible news today out of toronto. early this afternoon, we had those images of the crime scene on that downtown street where it was clear that many people had been hit and at least hurt by a white van that appeared to have been deliberately driven into pedestrians at speed on a sunny day on a busy street in the heart of downtown toronto. witnesses said the van was speeding down the sidewalk, going about 40 miles an hour and it went for blocks and blocks and blocks, for more than half a mile. for hours after the incident happened, we did not have confirmation from local authorities about the extent of the injuries or the number of people who were hurt or killed. that delay, i think, made it all the more of a shock when police finally announced that ten people were killed in this incident today. another 15 injured. ten dead makes this one of the worst mass killings in canadian

history. the man who appears to have been at the wheel of the vehicle was arrested about a mile from where all those people were killed and video that we believe shows what happened right before he was arrested, the man is confronted by police officers and he appears to say to police, repeatedly, kill me, kill me, kill me, shoot me in the head. the police did not oblige him that. he was taken into custody alive. we know his name. we know his age, but we know nothing thus far about what motivated the attack. on days like this, of course, what is in the front of the mind are other times that we have seen events that looked like this. we have seen vehicles used as deliberate weapons of mass murder over the past couple of years, in a bunch of different countries, national holiday fireworks display in nice in france last summer, on london bridge last summer in london, england, on a major pedestrian thoroughfare in barcelona. and of course on a bike path in manhattan on the west side of

manhattan in october. and all of those instances, the attackers driving the vehicles turned out to have links to islamic terrorist groups or at least to be inspired by that ideology. in this instance, today in toronto, again, dwe do not yet know the motivations of this attacker, if he had any, but he himself did survive it and police have him. so, we will let you know more as we learn more over the course of this evening. that's basically the extent of what we know thus far. as i mentioned, in washington tonight, there has been some drama over the course of the day into this evening. the first drama resolved in the white house's favor. it surrounded the nomination of ex-republican congressman now cia director mike pompeo. he was the president's pick to be the next secretary of state after rex tillerson was fired over twitter. up until the last minute, mike pompeo was set to become the first ever secretary of state nominee to get voted down by the foreign relations committee in the senate. pompeo, however, was saved that

indignity at the last moment when, you guessed it, senator rand paul, once again, decided that while he likes all the attention he gets for saying he'll be a no vote on an important republican priority, ultimately he wouldn't vote no at all, not if it actually has real world consequences. senator rand paul has made a profession of this in washington over and over and over again. senator rand paul, as soon as you hear about this pattern, you don't even have to hear his name before you know it's him. he pledges to do a maverick thing for what he declares is a principled reason and everybody in washington writes about what a principled maverick he is but then in the end, he never actually defies his party, not when it comes to vote or actually taking an action. not if it might actually mean something. so if you were swayed by all those headlines that rand paul has been rolling around in for months, he'll do whatever it takes to stop mike pompeo, then don't feel about falling for it.

you are not alone. rand paul is very good at this particular trick. we will have more on that story ahead tonight, including an expert view on why the nominee to replace mike pompeo as head of the cia might be another nomination that's in actual jeopardy and as i mentioned, there's new reporting which is just breaking as we're getting on the air tonight about why the va nomination might also be dead in the water, newly reported information tonight from multiple news sources about va nominee ronnie jackson, who is currently the white house physician. he was a very surprised pick to say the least when the president fired his previous va secretary and it came time to pick a new one. new serious concerns raised by presidents in both parties tonight about admiral ronnie jackson and this nomination. looks like that nomination will be delayed if not entirely put off. we will have more on that ahead. but we're going to start tonight with the french president visiting washington today. president emmanuel macron and president trump, they've had

some awkward moments. i still find it almost impossible to watch the excruciating footage of the terrible death grip walking handshake contest where they each tried to prove possession of the bigger, stronger, longer, grabbier, pokier handshake. it was like watching an arm wrestling contest where you win by giving the other guy cooties or at least the willies. very, very awkward. there was also president trump's previous trip to france, which had its own specific kind of awkwardness. president trump so enthralled with the military parade he witnessed on that trip that he immediately came home and starting demanding that we hold a military parade for him in washington too. i mean, that's awkward on its face, but it was also awkward because the president, by all accounts, was unable to shake his fixation on this military display even in, like, obviously inappropriate settings.

for example, when the president came back from france to washington, after watching that parade, it was right in the middle of republicans in congress losing their bid to kill obamacare. in the middle of that loss, while this thing is falling apart in congress, the president held a last-minute meeting with republican members of congress in which he reportedly couldn't even focus on what was going on with health care. he couldn't focus on the legislature because he was still so transfixed by that military parade that he had just seen on his trip to france. the president, quote, implored them to hurry up and get the bill to his desk, but it was paris and the flag-waving festivities he had witnessed alongside french president emmanuel macron that occupied much of his attention during the conversation. in an interview, republican senator steve daines described the conversation as loose. devote quo

quote, the president talked about france and bastille day and then they lost the health care vote. two months later, president trump again met with french president emmanuel macron. they met on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly in new york and he was still obsessed with the same thing. >> and it was one of the greatest parades i've ever seen. it was two hours on the button and it was military might, and i think a tremendous thing for trance and for the spirit of trance, but when you see that and you see all the victories, it was a tremendous thing, and to a large extent, because of what i witnessed, we may do something like that on july 4th in washington down pennsylvania avenue. i don't know. we're going to have to try and top it. but we got a lot of planes going over and we had a lot of military might, and it was really a beautiful thing to see. so, it was a beautiful day. it was really so well done, but i came back and one of my early calls were, i think wear going

-- we're going to have to start looking at that ourselves. fourth of july, pennsylvania avenue, having a really great parade to show our military strength. >> can i just tell you, i cut and edited that tape myself, like we went through the transcript. like, i could have shown you twice that much tape of him going on and on and on and on about the parade. this is months after he'd seen it. the president was quite taken with this. now, the president has thus far not been able to get his compete with the french military parade, not yet, but honestly, when france decided to invite president trump to see a parade, they had his number in terms of how to get inside his head. he has been obsessed ever since. well, tomorrow, now that president macron is visiting washington, president macron and president trump will get a chance to review the troops on the white house lawn, so it's possible that will scratch that itch a little bit for president trump. it's -- seems likely to me that the president will talk once

again about how much he loved that parade and wants one of his own. that review of the troops will precede the first state dinner of the trump presidency tomorrow night. president trump has decided that this state dinner will be the first one in modern history to include precisely one member of the opposite political party, one democrat is invited, democrat john bel edwards, the governor of louisiana. he will also invite zero press to this state dinner. no journalists. which is an awkward thing to do to the leader of another major democracy, right? invite them to a gala event in their honor, which makes history for its groundbreaking partisanship and hostility to the freedom of the press. there's one other thing to know here about this trip. because mike pompeo's nomination is still in process, all of this stuff about this visit is happening while there is no secretary of state. rex tillerson's been gone for a while now. there's no replacement for him yet. who's providing diplomatic advice to the president on the occasion of this state visit,

this first state dinner of the trump presidency? and this already awkward relationship with this important ally who has already displayed the capacity to ring this president like a bell whenever he feels like it. as far as we know, his chief adviser on these matters now, at least for the time being, appears to be this man. his current gig has just started as president trump's third and newest national security adviser. but today, nbc news has an eye-opening report on john bolton's immediate past gig before he took the national security adviser job. he was the chairman of something called the gate stone institute. well, if the french president and his advisers who are with him on this trip, if they wanted to take the measure of this presidency, not just president trump himself but who has the president's ear on national security, especially with no secretary of state in place, the french president and his advisers might have googled some

of the work carried out at this gatestone incident -- excuse me, gate stone institute while john bolton was running the place. if so, they would have found articles like these. headline, emmanuel macron, useful idiot of islamism. quote, france on the verge of total collapse. quote, europe's childless leaders sleepwalking us to disaster. in which emmanuel macron is singled out for not having kids. quote, as europe's leaders have no children, they seem to have no reason to worry about the future of their continent. also, france's macron submits to the arab world. this is john bolton's gatestone institute which he was running up until the time he became national security adviser three weeks ago. this is the stuff that john bolton has been selling for years which is what it is but what does it mean to the french

president who's visiting our president who has picked this guy to be the top national security adviser in the white house. macron, president of the elites and the islamists. it's not just france. john bolton's organization has a line like this for everyone. germany seems to be an area of particular focus. germany infectious diseases spreading as migrants settle in. germany migrant rape crisis sowing terror and destruction, women and children sacrificed. here's one in the uk, is the united kingdom an islamist colony. obama's traditional muslim bias against christians. here's another great headline from john bolton's gatestone incident. europe, the great white death. that means exactly what you think it does. until he took his job as national security adviser three weeks ago, john bolton was running this organization. that was proclaiming that white

people are on the way to being extinguished because of immigration. the great white death. arguments like these that open societies are dangerous and democracy is a failure and white people are going to die out unless they turn against the nonwhite people among them, these are favorite arguments of a lot of different extremist movements in our own country but they're also favorite arguments about the west in russian propaganda so john bolton's gatestone incident has been a favorite source for rt outlets. they've also found themselves supported online by russian bots, including the russian organization that was recently indicted by robert mueller for its role in the pro-trump russian attack on our 2016 presidential election. nbc news documents today that john bolton's gatestone group has been funded, well funded, by robert and rebecca mercer, the

top trump donors who also funded breitbart and cambridge analytica. they were the main funders behind john bolton's super pac, which has reportedly created ongoing concerns about bolton's conflicts of interest in his new role as national security adviser. nbc reporting that those conflict of interest meetings with white house lawyers have continued since he has started the job, but he has started the job. he is national security adviser now. which is amazing to a lot of americans because of who john bolton is. but it is hard to fathom how that may be received by foreign leaders like the one visiting today. useful idiot of islamism. here's one last thing to watch when it comes to john bolton. he has only been on the job for three weeks now but since he has been there, the people who had previously been charged with national security issues at the white house, they've been dropping like flies. i'm going to have to use the wall here for a second. ready? ready?

take dramamine. we're moving. since john bolton arrived, in the past three weeks, we have seen the departure of the spokesman for the national security council. he announced that he was resigning when bolton came on board but it later emerged that he didn't have a choice. he was told resign today or be fired. the next we were told about the departure of the white house homeland security adviser, tom bossert. he's out too. then next it was a very highly regarded deputy national security adviser over here, this would be the -- one of several who have already departed. she wrote the current national security strategy. she was pushed out once bolton arrived as well. soon to be followed by yet another deputy national security adviser. that's a major general in the u.s. army. then we got the surprise departure of the white house cyber security adviser who left his job at the white house and

went back to the national security administration. now, tonight, we have learned about another senior national security departure from the trump white house, the chief of staff to the national security council, keith kellogg, is also leaving that gig, although he too will be getting a soft landing. he will be moving to the staff of vice president mike pence. you might remember mike pence last week made a move to try to hire a national security adviser for himself who he would share with the staff of u.n. ambassador nikki haley. the president himself reportedly kiboshed that idea. so, instead, mike pence will take keith kellogg off the national security council where he had been serving as chief of staff and that's fine and good but that is a lot of departures suddenly. it wasn't just h.r. mcmaster. it's all these other people that have gone in the last three weeks, at least a half dozen of

them. john great white death bolton has really cleaned the place out quickly but it's worth noting that he hasn't replaced these people. we've had word thus far about john bolton hiring one person since he started. someone he brought over from the white house personnel office. but that's it. all of those -- these new folks are out since bolton started just three weeks ago. and actually, while we've got the wall here, there is one more change involving the wall that you should know about. it concerns a guy -- do we have him up here somewhere? this guy. look, it's gone. oh, it's back. control room just got in my ear and said, no idea. anyway, intelligence director at the national security council. that guy was fired months ago as the intelligence director at the national security council. that was a guy that was fired after he reportedly helped

republican congressman devin nunes pull off that weird stunt at the white house that got nunes investigated. this was the stunt where devin nunes tried to say that he had the proof that president obama really had wiretapped trump tower. remember that? congressman said he had to rush to the white house to tell president trump what he had found. well, president obama did not wiretap trump tower and whatever congressman nunes had, he reportedly got from the white house in the first place, so he didn't need to rush it back in there after he just took it from them. the stuff that he got from the white house, he got, reportedly, from a young guy who mike flynn had installed on the national security council. in the wake of that mishigas, that guy who flynn had installed who helped out devin nunes with that stunt, that guy got fired from the national security council. however, according to a report from bloomberg news, that guy, he's now back in government service.

specifically, he's now been hired on at the justice department to work in attorney general jeff sessions' office as jeff sessions' national security adviser. he was reportedly hired for that job because, quote, president donald trump personally ordered the department of justice to hire him. now, we don't know why the president wants this guy at the justice department, but the democratic leader of the senate had an idea about it. chuck schumer's spokesman told bloomberg, quote, given ezra cohen-watnick's role in helping turn the investigation into a partisan breeding ground for conspiracy theories, mr. cohen-watnick's's new position with the attorney general is deeply troubling. mr. cohen-watnick's must not come anywhere near the mueller investigation and democrats will watch like a hawk to ensure that is the case. so, this guy fired from the white house before for his involvement with what really looked like an effort to monkey

wrench the russia investigation, we don't know why president trump has ordered him to be hired again by the trump administration and specifically ordered that he be given a job in the office of attorney general jeff sessions. we don't know why the president himself would personally reach down and issue an order to put that particular guy in that particular place. but as of today, ezra cohen-watnick has reportedly just finished his first week on the job, now at the department of justice. there's been so much turmoil and turnover in the administration, it continues tonight. but it's been happening long enough that people previously cast out are starting to get recycled into new, even more controversial jobs. heads up on this one. mine's way better.

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i mentioned at the top of the show there is some new breaking news tonight about the president's nominee to lead the va. white house physician ronny jackson. admiral jackson was a surprise pick in the first place, because the va is the second largest agency in the entire government. it's a very difficult agency to run in the best of times. admiral jackson is never known to have run any large

organization, even though people seem to like him as the white house doctor. but the president picked him for the va job. admiral jackson's confirmation hearing was scheduled to take place the day after tomorrow but now, tonight, looks like that's off. axios was first to report over the weekend about rumbles thereby might there might be a problem. they were growing concerned about the prospects of admiral jackson being confirmed and not just because of his lack of leadership experience. they reported, specific concerns about jackson's professional conduct in the navy had been taken to the ranking democrat on the veterans committee, john tester. a source briefed on the situation told axios that the white house is looking into these complaints to see if they are legitimate or simply politically motivated slurs on his character. what are these concerns and complaints exactly? nobody's really spelling it out but cnn and politico are both

out with new reports confirming what axios woaxios -- reported over the weekend. we're not getting specifics but the way cnn puts it is, quote, committee members have been told about allegations related to improper conduct in various stages of his career. according to cnn, none of the senators would publicly detail the specifics of the allegations. politico.com also reporting that these concerns, again, unspecified concerns, may lead to a delay in jackson's nomination moving ahead. well now, tonight, two days before his confirmation hearing is supposed to happen, we have breaking news from the "washington post." senate to postpone confirmation hearing for ronny jackson to head veterans affairs. "the washington post" is reporting that the decision to postpone the hearing was made, quote, after top republicans and democrats raised concerns about his qualifications and oversight

of the white house medical staff. "the washington post" reporting that the white house and other administration officials have been told about this decision to postpone the confirmation hearing, but we are still trying to figure out what these concerns are. joining us now is reporter lisa ryan. thanks very much for joining us on short notice. i appreciate it. >> my pleasure, rachel. >> first, let me ask you. i'm actually not sure how you pronounce your last anytime. >> it's rhine, just like the river. >> i just lost my whole graphic showing the departures of everybody from the white house and the senior administration since the start of the trump presidency, so me getting something like that wrong seemed like the obvious next step tonight. so thank you for that. so, the scoop here, obviously, is that there -- you're reporting that confirmation hearing for ronny jackson is going to be postponed. have they picked a new date to postpone it to or is this an endefinite postponement? >> right, so, actually, the

senate lawmakers are not actually talking tonight and they've pretty much shut down, but our sources at the white house and within va itself are telling us that the senators have told the white house that they're not holding the hearing on wednesday. we know that. so, what we really don't know is whether this hearing is going to be indefinitely postponed, which really would mean that admiral jackson's nomination would pretty much be dead in the water. i don't think there's a decision on that. you know, this was -- admiral jackson was kind of an odd choice from the start, so this came about because the president fired david shulkin, obama era holdover who was his va secretary for about 13, 14 months and then all of a sudden

on twitter he announced that the white house physician, ronny jackson, was his nominee. and this was a surprise to many people in the white house and, you know, also to top senior officials who had expressed concern that while, you know, admiral jackson is a very affable person who knows how to read a room really well, who is very personable and, you know, just a friendly, smart guy from texas, that, you know, what does he know about running va, and you know, previously, there have been people running the agency who have been chosen just because they were either doctors or former corporate executives who had run large organizations, so this was a switch. and what's gone on now is that a few of the senators on the veterans affairs committee have received allegations about the admiral and his oversight of the

white house medical office, which is a fairly small office of maybe 20, 30 people, mostly active duty, you know, doctors and nurses. and there really are no other details, and this -- but the concerns are so serious that, you know, the senators on both sides of the aisle decided that they really needed to postpone this while they do the vetting that some of the them have said privately the white house didn't do. >> obviously the concern is about we don't know the details. axios describes concerns about jackson's professional conduct in the navy. "cnn tonight" described allegations related to improper conduct. you at the "washington post" have reported there were concerns about his oversight of the white house medical staff as you just explained. if senators are hearing about these concerns, presumably the

white house could have also heard about these concerns when they decided they were going to put him forward for this nomination. does it seem like maybe the white house didn't do basic -- didn't do the same amount of vetting that senators have been able to do? >> right. i think that's pretty clear. now, you could certainly argue, and you know, we were told that his fbi background check did not turn up any of these kinds of concerns, but management issues are, you know, things that don't often show up in a background check, which is really more sort of hewing to criminal issues and other issues, but it is very true that president trump goes with his gut and we were also told a few weeks ago when this all happened that admiral jackson was not even formally interviewed for the job but that the president really kept saying to him, you would be great at this, you would be great at this, and admittedly, it is not that easy to find someone to run va. it is a troubled agency. you know, it's got so many

stakeholders. you've got veterans groups on the left, on the right. you've got real people you're serving every day in veterans hospitals. and it's not a job that everyone wants, and we also were told in the beginning that it wasn't a job that ronny jackson wanted, but he grew to decide that this was something he really, really wanted to do. but there were concerns from the start from members of congress on the senate committee. well, there are two issues. so, one is just his lack of management experience. and republicans, while they didn't say they didn't support him, you know, up until just a day or two ago, it was hard to find a republican on that committee who would say, i fully support ronny jackson and this is a different story than we've gotten with mike pompeo, the nominee to be -- the cia director nominee to run the state department. the other issue is something that you have raised a few times

on your show, rachel, and this is a big concern of democrats, and it has to do with outsourcing health care from the va to private doctors. and you can use the word privatization, but whatever it is, it is a huge concern for democrats, and that, i believe, was really still remains -- the democrats' concern, you know, what would dr. jackson's view be of how much care veterans should get in what they call in the community. and so, this was a huge issue for them. both because they felt -- they still feel that if you take money outside of va and you give it to the private sector, you're kind of dismantling the va itself. this has been a very politicizing and very controversial issue. >> "washington post" reporter lisa rein. thank you for joining us on such short notice tonight for this scoop that you and your colleagues have at the "post."

really happy to have you here. thank you. lisa rein, josh, and sun moon kim are the reporters on this "washington post" scoop tonight that even as the white house appears to score a win with mike pompeo's secretary of state nomination tonight, it looks like the va nomination of admiral ronny jackson is on ice. i will tell you before we leave this subject for a second, there is a report out from cbs news while we have been on the air. this is not confirmed by nbc news. this is cbs news alone. but what they are reporting in terms of the actual allegations, what they say the allegations are that are being reviewed about admiral jackson, i'm quoting cbs, quote, include a hostile work environment, excessive drinking on the job, and improperly dispensing meds. again, those are the only details we've had reported about what the concerns are about ronny jackson. that's cbs news reporting. we have not confirmed it, but this is a fast-moving story tonight. we'll be right back. rate to seve plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal.

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so we're continuing to follow this breaking news tonight from the wochlt po"wash post" concerning the president's nominee to head the va. white house physician dr. ronny jackson. jackson's confirmation hearing had been scheduled for the day after tomorrow. according to the "post," as to have tonight, it is being postponed and we don't have a new date. this comes amid reports that republicans and democrats have raised concerns about his qualifications and his oversight of the white house medical staff.

now, that sounds vague, i know. cbs news is reporting, just in the past couple of minutes, that the concerns about dr. jackson including a hostile work environment, excessive drinking on the job, and improperly dispensing meds. that sounds serious. that is cbs news reporting that tonight. i need to tell you that is not confirmed by nbc news. in terms of the president's other cabinet picks, the senate is now expected this week to confirm mike pompeo as the next secretary of state, replacing rex tillerson. mr. pompeo's nomination passed out of committee today with a little bit of rand paul infused drama. senator paul had insisted that mike pompeo, he's be a no, no, no, no way vote, he'd do anything to stop it. naturally, rand paul ended up voting yes for mike pompeo today. that pretty much ends the drama over pompeo's nomination. but the confirmation of the president's pick to replace mike

pompeo as head of the cia, that is another one that may not go smoothly. gina is the nominee. her reported involvement in the cia's torture program during the george w. bush administration is turning into a really serious issue for her nomination, and it's not democrats who are the only ones raising concerns here. today, senators received this letter signed by over 100 retired military leaders, senior ones, 109 retired generals and admirals, saying that they too are concerned about her nomination. that is the sort of thing that tends to get senators' attention. joining us now is one of the retired generals who signed this letter sent to the senate today. general irvine, thank you so much for giving us some of your time tonight. it's a pleasure to have you, sir. why did you sign this letter and what are your concerns? >> well, we have a number of concerns about this nomination. and probably the biggest is that

torture, and let's be clear that the cia has denied for years that it ever tortured anyone, however, the definition of torture is pretty plain and pretty clear. it's the infliction of severe mental or physical pain on an individual or the threat of imminent death or the use of any procedure that profoundly disrupts the senses or personality, and it's very clear that the program of enhanced interrogation, so-called, that the cia developed and implemented around the world at secret black sites violated federal law and international law, because that was torture, and she played some significant role in the management of that program and in the direct supervision of one of those black sites in thailand. and we feel very strongly that this is a nomination which, if confirmed, would do incalculable

damage to the position of moral leadership the united states needs to exercise around the world. >> do you feel -- on that last point that you're making in terms of the danger to america's moral leadership, is it essentially your argument here, and tell me if i've got this wrong, that regardless of what else we should know about gina haspel's role, essentially there's symbolic damage done, leadership damage done by just the elevation of her with this on her record. essentially, even, in that case, even the nomination of her to lead the cia would have done that kind of harm to this country. >> absolutely. napoleon was quite a strategist and he observed that the moral is to the physical as three is to one. and the message that this nomination sends, not only around the world, but to the cia itself, and to the american people, is pretty serious.

this resonates in a particular way for military officers, because the irony of the haspel nomination is very, very curious. we expect young men and women, 18 and 19 years old, who are infantrymen and women in the armed services to have the moral capacity to recognize an illegal order and to resist it and if they make the wrong call and don't resist it, they can be tried and convicted under the uniform code of military justice. so far, there has really been no one at the cia who has been held to account for its torture policies, and the message that this sends is one which i think was best expressed by a cia officer who went on the air in 2007 and publicly identified the

program for what it was and named an interrogator. he was charged and convicted and served two years in prison for that act. he's the only one that i can recall who has been held to account. those who implemented and managed the program have been promoted, have been recognized, have been decorated, and we are saying, go ahead, torture, ignore the law, ignore the morality, ignore the consequences to the country, and its national security, and you can even cover up the evidence and that's okay. >> general david irvine is one of 109 retired generals and admirals who signed this letter today opposing gina haspel's nomination to be cia director. general, it's an honor to have you on the show tonight, sir. thank you very much for being with us. we'll be right back. stay with us.

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[ drum roll ] ...emily lapier from ames, iowa. this is emily's third nomination and first win. um...so, just...wow! um, first of all, to my fellow nominees, it is an honor sharing the road with you. and of course, to the progressive snapshot app for giving good drivers the discounts -- no, i have to say it -- for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. safe driving! these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com this is your president with his toaster oven cranked all the way up to freakout.

and i know, i know, i try not to look myself, but all of this is how the president has responded over the last couple of days to the release of james comey's memos. memos describing conversations that the former fbi director says he had with the president and with other people in the administration. it has occasioned quite a response from the president. it is also apparently occasioned the president to lie about something that is provably untrue and that is very related to very specific allegations against him that he doesn't want to talk about. and that story's next. stay with us. heartburn!

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last week, the memos that james comey wrote about his white house interactions before he was fired were all released to the public with only minor redactions thanks to congressional pressure on the justice department to let those things out. that really big news did not make really big news. i mean, the president freaked out on twitter about it for a number of days running but the public response, the press response was more of a shrug, right? seen it all before. almost literally. that's because you had seen it all before. there was not a lot of news in james comey's memos, which is the point. his notes hewed so closely to what he had previously told investigators and members of congress that they seemed boring, but they did also prove the main point, which is that his story hasn't changed one whit. that's your news. the president has been calling

james comey a liar, but james comey's testimony really is bolstered by his notes. his memos match basically exactly what he told congress and what he said publicly and what he put in his book. his story has been consistent. what he said the first time is what he has still said every time since, which is what it looks like when a person is telling a true story. if you're counting on james comey seeming like someone who is just making stuff up, the release of these memos proving his consistent memory over time, it might be an occasion to freak out, because he has kept the story straight from the very beginning. that said, we did get one piece of new news from the comey memos. it was actually new. in the memo from comey that's dated february 8, 2017, he writes about a meeting that he had at the white house with the president's then chief of staff reince priebus. they were apparently talking about the christopher steele dossier and in comey's memo, he makes this note that he told reince priebus, quote, much of the dossier was consistent with and corroborative of other

intelligence and the incoming president needed to know the rest was out there. so, that's new. the person leading the russia investigation before he was fired by the president says he told the white house chief of staff that much of the dossier was not only consistent with other information gathered by intelligence agencies, it was corroborated by that information. that was on february 8th. less than a month into the new administration. much of the dossier was consistent with and corroborative of other intelligence. and the incoming president needed to know the rest of it was out there. now, the rest of it that was out there, we think that line in comey's memo may be a reference to a specific part of the steele dossier that is as yet publicly uncorroborated but it's the allegation that mr. trump had a special time of his own with prostitutes at moscow's ritz carlton hotel during a 2013 trip

to moscow. in his memos, comey says trump appeared fixated on that topic. at a white house dinner, january 27th, comey says the president said he had spoken to people who had been on the miss universe trip with him. they reminded him he didn't stay overnight in russia for that. then, during a meeting in the oval office, february 8, quote, the president explained, as he did at our dinner, that he hadn't stayed overnight in russia during the miss universe trip. this appears not to be a true claim by the president. flight records obtained by bloomberg news confirmed that trump landed in moscow the morning of friday, november 8, 2013. he then departed sunday, november 10, in the early morning hours, confirming that while mr. trump did not spend a full saturday night, the night after the miss universe pageant, he did spend the previous night. he spent friday night in moscow at the ritz carlton hotel, which is reportedly the same day that he was offered the five russian women to visit him in his hotel room. of course he didn't want that. in november last year, nbc news

reported that trump's long-time body guard, keith shiller, testified to congress that on the day of their arrival to moscow, a russian offered to send five women to trump's moscow hotel room. he told members of the house intelligence committee that he laughed at the offer and said, we don't do that type of stuff. he and trump laughed about the offer. he then testified that he stood outside trump's hotel room for a while and then he went to bed. one source telling nbc news that he testified that he couldn't say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night. how should we think about this revelation? joining us now is julia anzly, nbc national security and justice reporter. julia, let me ask you about this new news. i don't know how to fit this all together but in terms of nbc's understanding of the time line here, it sounds like the president's assertion that he wasn't overnight in moscow just isn't the case. >> that seems to be the case and obviously that was already an assertion that was undermined by keith schiller, his personal

body guard. he knew mr. trump was in there before he was the president, 2013, and this is a really critical time because it's not just part of the dossier, which is also important, but it's the beginning of the trump/russia relationship and this matters when you're trying to look at the entire investigation and zoom out on the relationship between this president and anything with the russians would call kompromat. his wanting to pick every piece of this dossier apart and say it is uncorroborated but people in the intelligence community will tell you that there can be pieces of raw information that are correct and pieces that are incorrect and in this case, they have evidence to believe that what mr. trump is saying, what he told -- what president trump is saying to comey, that his head never hit a pillow that night is incorrect, that in fact he was there, which of course leads us to wonder, was this other more salacious detail correct and what other parts of this overall dossier, which

would be incredibly damning for trump and his campaign and his administration might also be correct. it really sort of undermines this lynchpin that trump has built around to try to de-obstruct the mueller investigation. it takes away that alibi. >> and do we know if m mr. schiller has spoken with mr. mueller? >> mueller has a way of bringing people in back doors but it has not been reported. we do know that sometimes people who are really central to the investigation are saved until a little bit later, for example, cohen, the personal lawyer of donald trump was not interviewed or brought into this until recently. so maybe schiller is next. we'll be paying attention to that. >> julia, thank you very much. >> thank you. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the last word

with lawrence o'donnell. >> you know, i think robert mueller and if you gave him the job, michael avenatti would figure it out. he is going to join rachel during your hour the breaking news about dr. ronny jackson, the development that his nomination is in trouble for reasons other than the basic competence that one would need to run something like the veterans administration. >> it's the second largest organization in the government, other than the military, it is incredibly complex, it is a difficult agency in the best of times, it's been through incredibly difficult times recently, and it was -- honestly, it was always a weird pick. the white house physician is a weird choice for that role in terms of managerial experience, familiarity with the issues and all that stuff. but we're chasing tonight, trying